The Girl Who Was Afraid
by MrsTilney
Summary: Ginny is about to enter her Sixth Year.  She is a quiet nervous person who has many acquaintances but few real friends.  Her circumstances change when she is yet again the victim and puppet of a mysterious perpetrator.. GWxBZ Rated T just incase.
1. Chapter 1

The Girl Who Was Afraid

Summary

Ginny has been at Hogwarts for 5 years and is about to enter her Sixth Year. She is a quiet nervous person who has many acquaintances but very few (one might even say no) close friends. This is not because the other students there are mean or that she is a loner. Inside she is just as vivacious and likeable as the next person, she just prefers not to show this side to the world due to certain issues in her present and past life. However, her circumstances change when she is yet again the victim and puppet of a mysterious perpetrator who forces her into the path of a certain Slytherin...

N.B

I'm not going to pretend this is an amazing first chapter. I started writing it a while ago, so it's not perfect, however I thought I'd post it and see if anyone was interested in me writing any more. Obviously all characters recognised belong to the marvellous JK Rowling, as does the world of Hogwarts etc. You will recognise indirect content from the second book of the series, Chamber of Secrets, in this chapter. The only thing I own here is the plot.

Chapter One

Ginny sighed and put her bookmark in the page of her book. She looked up from under the tree she was sitting against and glanced across the grounds of Hogwarts. It was a cool wintry Sunday in November, in her Sixth Year, and she was the only one outside. Everyone else was inside in the warmth, finishing off homework before the start of a new week. She had already completed her own work the day before, having not gone to Hogsmeade on the regular trip that occurred every few weeks.

The reason for this was simple. She had no friends. Or rather, very few acquaintances. She talked to the people in her class, ate with those in her dorm and of course she spent some time with her brother Ron and his friends. But none of them really knew her, or bothered to get to know her.

It wasn't their fault though. She had become completely introverted since the harrowing events of her First Year. Ginny could no longer place her fragile trust in people for fear they would hurt her. She had never had many friends when she was little, as she had played with her brothers for most of her childhood, getting slowly more lonely as they left to go to Hogwarts. It was the worst and most boring year of her life when Ron left, she basically spent the whole year playing by herself and talking to her mother.

Then she finally turned eleven and knew that year she'd get to go to Hogwarts too. She was so excited that she'd be able to see the place where her brothers went and raved about. She would be able to meet lots of people her age and make lots of friends. However fate had other ideas. For this wasn't just her first year, it was also the year the Diary came to Hogwarts. And the little she remembered from that year haunted her still.

****** Flashback ******

_She remembered finding an old tattered diary amongst her school books after returning from the family's shopping trip to Diagon Alley._

_She remembered how, when she wrote in the book, the ink had disappeared. She had been even more shocked when words – different words – appeared on the page._

_She vaguely remembered writing to a guy named Tom, her first friend at Hogwarts._

_She remembered Percy bullying her into taking Pepperup Potion, convinced a cold was the cause of her looking peaky._

_She remembered attacks at Hogwarts and turning up in the strangest of places with no memory of how she got there._

_She remembered being terrified someone would find out what she had done and had withdrawn even more into herself._

_She remembered waking in the Chamber with Tom, and Harry Potter – her brother's best friend – rescuing her._

_She knew that she had been used by Tom and that he was some sort of form that Voldemort had taken to get to Harry._

_The rest was blurry, as though it was not really her life she had lived that year, but someone else's instead._

****** Present ******

The sudden movement of an owl taking flight broke Ginny from her reverie. She was shocked at how dark it had become, and checking her watch she saw it was much later than she had originally planned to stay out, nearing curfew. She stood up, picking up her book and began to run across the darkening grounds towards the entrance of Hogwarts.

Once inside the much warmer halls, which did not feel like home to her in the same way that other students saw it, Ginny thought a bit more about how she viewed the Castle. She knew Harry, for example, considered Hogwarts his real home – though she knew this was due to his terrible upbringing. However, the events which had occurred in her first year had made sure she would never see this place as anything less than the birthplace of her nightmares. Where others saw the welcoming candlelight of the halls, she saw the shadows and the sinister dark beyond them. She'd had nightmares ever since First Year, and though they had mercifully begun to decrease, they had not desisted altogether. She could not shake the feeling of fear she felt at the back of her mind whenever she was alone in Hogwarts.

Ginny quickened her footsteps, she didn't want to be caught out of hours, especially by Filch, who was very unpleasant and still scared her after all these years. There was an unexpected creak behind her and she spun around, whipping fiery strands of hair across her pale face. Out of the shadows stepped Blaise Zabini, a Slytherin from the year above her. She drew her breath in sharply and started to back away slowly.

"Calm down Weasley," he said, holding up his hands in a placating manner. "I'm not here to hurt you", he walked around her as if trying to work her out, "bit twitchy aren't you? Mind you, you shouldn't be out, " he smirked – a trait which all Slytherins seemed to share.

Ginny relaxed her pose just a little and stared warily at him. "Then why are you out?"

He tapped to a badge pinned to his chest – he was a prefect. _Perfect!_ thought Ginny, sighing to herself. He spoke again, "I won't take points tonight, Weasley, but you better get to bed quickly, it's not safe down here. Especially not among Slytherins..." he grinned devilishly and moved past her.

She watched him disappear into the darkness, his cloak billowing behind him, then turned to head back to Gryffindor Tower. Suddenly there was a creak from behind her and a deft hand came out of the darkness to cover her mouth before she could scream.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Again I do not own anything here, tis all the wonderful JK Rowling. I know this isn't a very good chapter, but I figured I'd kept you guys waiting so here it is :)

Chapter Two

The bright November sunlight almost blinded Ginny as she sat at the back of her arithmancy class, for once not concentrating on the lesson, but instead focusing on her ordeal the previous night.

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The first thing Ginny noticed was a strange musty smell, she couldn't quite place it. The second thing she noticed was that she was tied up to a chair in a dark room with only the light from a lamp on her face. She couldn't see more than four feet into the room. A voice spoke.

"Welcome Miss Weasley..", the voice said in a cold tone that chilled Ginny to the bone. "I've been waiting for you".

Ginny muffled a gasp and attempted to pull free from her bonds, with little success. "Who are you? What do you want with me?" she asked, desperately trying to buy time as she struggled with the rope tying her hands behind her back. This effort was fruitless however and she felt a breeze by her shoulder, before hearing the voice by her ear.

"Who I am is of no importance. What is important the task you're going to do for me".

"And what task would that be?" she stuttered, all sorts of horrors runing through her mind. She hadn't felt this blind terror since her first year. And the dark only made it worse, she couldn't see her captor but for a shadow that kept appearing and vanishing again.

The voice chuckled, making her wince and drawled, "You're going to find some things out for me. I believe you know of a student here with the name of Zabini, Blaise Zabini?"

She swallowed, "Yeah Zabini, what do you want with him?" Ginny felt a strong hand grab her chin painfully as the voice murmered,

"You're going to get close to him and find out what secret he's hiding."

Ginny gasped, "But he's a Slytherin, there's no way he'd ever tell me any of his secrets. It's not going to work, you've got the wrong girl, " she protested. "Just let me go, I won't do it even if-"

The voice cut her off coldly, "Oh I think we've got the right girl Ginevra Weasley, the girl who faced the Chamber four years ago." The voice chuckled maliciously as she shook visibly with the mention of the Chamber. "And as for you not doing what I want, I believe you have a lovely family of brothers. Wonder how your _dear_ mother would feel if they started to go missing?"

Ginny choked back a sob, "You wouldn't - my brothers - leave them alone please!"

The silence that followed told her the voice could not be reasoned with. With tears rolling down her face, she swallowed and said, "What do I have to do?"

The hand that had been holding her chin in a painful grasp gentled to a caress that she wasn't sure she preferred. "Nothing more than I said, get close to the Zabini boy and find out his secrets. I have my ways of watching so don't even think of tricking me". The light in her face went out suddenly and Ginny was pushed to her feet, blindfolded and taken from the room. After some minutes of walking she was unbound and left standing. Taking her blindfold off, Ginny was dazzled by the light of the school lamps in the corridor. She blinked, tears still trickling down her cheeks and started into a frenzied run through the school, not stopping to catch breath until she reached Gryffindor Portrait and finally her bed, where she dived under the covers and tried to muffle the sobs racking her body...

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"Miss Weasley? Miss Weasley?" Ginny was shaken from her disturbed reverie by the Arithmancy professor looking sternly at her from the front of the class. "Is my lesson so boring and dull to you?"

Ginny sat up in her seat quickly, "No not at all professor-"

"See me after class", the teacher said with a wave of her hand, "Now back to the third rune..." Ginny tried to concentrate for the rest of the lesson, avoiding the stares of her classmates.

At the end she approached the professor, "Professor I'm so sorry about earlier, it won't happen again."

Professor Vector – as she was known – scrutinised her face, "Are you alright dear, is there something wrong?"

Ginny shook her head, "No miss, nothing. I'm fine, just a bit tired that's all". She was dismissed by Vector and dashed off to her next lesson.

At lunchtime Ginny skipped dinner in the Great Hall and took a walk outside, so she wouldn't have to pretend to be happy, which she was becoming so tired of doing. She found the tree across the grounds that she had sat in the previous day and let the icy wind envelop her while her thoughts ran and her hair acted like a shield to the outside world, covering her face. Hogwarts had always been at its most beautiful in the winter months and it was no exception now, with a haunting beauty from the grounds being empty. Somehow Ginny felt safer outside with the elements than inside with those shadows and dark spaces. Nobody else seemed to see them, it was as though she could see all the evil in the world when they could not. She thought about what her captor had said, get close to Zabini. All Slytherins had secrets that was true, but what was so special about Zabini? And what would her captor do when she had found the information out, if she ever did? Her brothers being hurt was unthinkable and she knew she would have to do as they said. But how would they know if she was lying? And they seemed to know all about her first year, something which scared her more than the task she had been given to complete. Ginny's watch, given to her by Harry on her last birthday, reminded her it was almost time for afternoon classes to start, so she walked back to the castle.

After lessons she had had a free period so she used that time to catch up on her homework, knowing she wouldn't want to be out of Gryffindor Tower after dinner, especially after yesterday's experience. She finished it rather quickly and joined her roommates for dinner in the Great Hall – joining in a little bit of conversation but not really tasting the pot roast she ate. Whilst scraping her fork across her potatoes in a pretence to eat them, her eyes were drawn to the slytherin table. She singled Zabini out easily, tall frame, dark hair and a handsome face that was marred with a smirk as he spoke to his table neighbour, Draco Malfoy. Malfoy then clearly said something he didn't like as Zabini shoved him and looked down at his food scowling. Ginny, involved in their exchange, didn't have to time to look away as Zabini looked up from his plate to catch her eye. His eyes widened and he stared curiously at her, whilst Ginny dropped her gaze, face burning in embarrassment of being caught. She didn't look over at that table again for the rest of the meal for fear Zabini was still looking her way and left as soon as she could, hurrying back to her dorm.

On the way back however, she heard light footsteps behind her and whipped around to see who was there before they could startle her. It turned out to be Zabini who had been following her and was now leaning around the wall nonchalently. Ginny stared at him, what could he possibly want with her? Had he found out that she had to spy on him?

"This is starting to be a common occurrence, "he drawled. "Meeting in the halls like this, we really must stop".

Ginny frowned slightly at him, "But you followed me out here. Why?"

Zabini smirked at her, "Yes I suppose that's true, well, truth be told, I was intrigued." He pushed away from the wall and walked slowly towards her. "Why were you staring at me during dinner?" His eyes searched hers out intently.

Ginny shook her head. "No reason, I was just looking that's all", she spoke quietly.

"Got a thing for me have you?" Zabini asked as his smirk deepened, as Ginny flushed a deep red. "Never mind. You can go".

He dismissed her with a wave of his hand and she continued on her way, breathing in deeply once she was out of sight. Damn Zabini! He was going to make this much harder. Well at least she'd started to talk to him, they couldn't say she hadn't tried.


End file.
